Prince Harry ‘Doesn’t Allow for the Pain William Has Been Through’ Says Royal Author
Prince Harry revealed details about his life as a royal family member in his book Spare and during high-profile TV interviews. One topic he focused on was how the death of his mother, Princess Diana, affected him.
A royal author says Prince Harry was “unfair” to Prince William. According to the author, Harry doesn’t do a sufficient job of acknowledging William’s pain. William also lost his mother, but much of the attention is focused on how Diana’s death affected Harry.
Prince Harry’s book is a ‘cry of pain,’ says royal author
Tina Brown, author of The Palace Papers, shared her thoughts on Prince Harry’s book. Brown says Harry’s autobiography is soaked with emotion. She describes Spare as “a cry of pain.”
“It is a real, raw cry of pain and extremely moving,” says Brown during an interview with CBS Mornings. “It’s much more important a book than people might have perhaps expected. Because he takes on so many issues about the monarchy and the cruelty of the system. It’s pretty riveting.”
However, Brown says Harry’s family members are written through the perspective of his anger. She believes his accounts are one-sided. “The rest of the family who are in his book are only seen through the prism of sort of his rage, really, about being marginalized as the spare, which is the hardest thing to be in that family,” she says.
Prince Harry ‘doesn’t allow for the pain William has been through,’ according to Tina Brown
Although Brown says Harry’s book is compelling, she does have one problem with it. She says Harry doesn’t sufficiently acknowledge Prince William’s pain.
“Where I do find [Prince Harry] somewhat unfair is about his brother William,” says Brown. “It’s almost like he doesn’t allow for the pain that William has been through.”
Brown says Prince William and the late Princess Diana were very close. She imagines Diana’s death affected William just as much as Harry.
“In Palace Papers I talk about how Diana really came to depend on William,” says Brown. “He was the older child. And they were very, very close. And she used to call him ‘my wise old man’ because he was a very serious, sober child who lifted up his mother a great deal.”
Brown continues, “And it was very painful for him when she went through all of these public affairs and she [spoke with] Martin Bashir and did the book with [Andrew] Morton and so on. Because he was older, he suffered a lot as the eldest boy. And of course, he’s had no choice in his life, either. He has to get on with it and be king. And nobody asked him if he wanted to be.”
Tina Brown says Prince Harry’s ‘Spare’ puts the royal family in an uncomfortable position
Gayle King asked Brown why Prince Harry’s story could be problematic. Brown says the main issue is the royal family can’t respond the way they want.
“It’s a mixed issue because obviously the rockets that [Harry] fired have landed on [the royal family],” says Brown. “They can’t speak within their system. Their formality of approach means that they cannot respond. So, they have had to sit there and sort of take the attacks in a sense without defending themselves.”
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